Keep Fit instructor who runs classes in Bourne celebrates 60th anniversary

An 88-year-old fitness instructor is celebrating 60 years of classes - and she has no plans to retire.

Fitness has been an integral part of Kathleen Knipe’s life since she was young.

As a pupil at Bourne Grammar School she broke many athletics records and spent much of her teenage years horse riding.

Inspired by her aunt, who ran Keep Fit classes in Boston, Kathleen approached Lincolnshire County Council to run sessions for adults in and around Bourne.

Kathleen, 88, said: “I believe in fitness because we need to be supple and have good mobility.

“We need to look after our bodies otherwise they won’t look after us.”

Kathleen started her classes in 1964, at the age of 28 and with a four-year-old son, and is still running sessions at the Methodist Church Hall in Bourne.

“As long as the people want me and as long as I can I will keep running the classes,” said Kathleen.

In previous years she held classes at Bourne Grammar School and Robert Manning School, now called Bourne Academy, and Bourne Abbey Church Hall as well as in the villages of Baston, Corby Glen, Carlby and Thurlby.

She did this alongside running the Coombe Farm Dog Boarding Kennels in Wilsthorpe with her husband John.

All her classes include fitness movements to music, floor exercises and line dancing. This is followed by coffee and biscuits provided by Kathleen.

She said: “Because I started in the 60s I still use 60s music, although I have also added popular tunes.

“I have to like the music though, otherwise I can’t work to it.”

The classes have evolved into a fitness and friendship group.

Many of the current class have been coming for over 20 years and had often attended her classes in previous years.

“The highlight is all the friends I have made,” said Kathleen.

She invited more than 20 women to a celebration in her garden in Wilsthorpe on Tuesday last week (July 16) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of her classes.

The party started with cocktails to toast Kathleen, followed by a buffet and a cake.